Does the Starfield trailer tease The Elder Scrolls 6's setting?
Maybe High Rock and Hammerfell, maybe a red herring, maybe nothing
Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI way back at E3 2018, then promptly started saying "Sorry, what, I can't hear you, gotta go" and leaving whenever anyone raised it again, or making beeping noises with their mouth then saying "Excuse me, I have a phone call". They did not show TES6 at E3 2021 either, instead focusing on Starfield, but their new sci-fi RPG's trailer might possibly be hiding a clue to TES6's setting. You see, tiny marks on one spaceship console do look like a map of High Rock and Hammerfell.
Skip to 1:17 there for the detail which caught the eagle eyes of fans like "Huhwtfbleh" on Reddit. This:
Alright computer, enhance.
Enhance.
Give me a hard copy of that. That does kinda look like a chunk of High Rock and Hammerfell on some maps of Tamriel, right? Bethesda hardly have an Ordnance Survey map of the world anyway, and it does change shape a bit across the series.
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This does seem quite a deliberate shape, and out of place on that panel. Bethesda have gestured vaguely in the direction of Hammerfell before too. Maybe they're just screwing with people but it wouldn't be the first time a developer hid info on a future game in plain sight for funsies and future revelation. Or maybe this is nothing, just nothing. Look, E3 is a time to get over-excited.
Some had assumed that TES6 would be subtitled Redfall, after Zenimax tradmarked that name in 2019 (which brought them into conflict with a sci-fi book series). Redfall sounds Elder Scrolls-y, right? Naw mate, Redfall is the new vampire-slaying co-op game from Arkane. For now, we know basically nothing about The Elder Scrolls VI.
As for Starfield, Bethesda execs have variously described it as "like Skyrim in space" or a "Han Solo simulator". The real scoop will be trying to trick one of them into saying it's "like The Elder Scrolls VI: Hammerfall And High Rock in space". Then we'll know.